The Benefits of Using WebDriver, a W3C standard, in Test Automation

The best stuff comes free (as in freedom and free beer)

Many automated testers at my age have tried many web test automation (end-to-end, functional) frameworks or tools at work and failed (check out the Definition of End-to-End Test Automation Success), such as

• HP Quick Test Pro, IBM Rational Functional Tester, Microsoft Coded UI Test, TestComplete, Tosca, Ranorex
• PhantomJS, Protractor, TestCafe, Puppeteer, Cypress and Playwright

My list is much shorter: Watir (2005–2011) and raw Selenium WebDriver (2011 — today), both with RSpec syntax framework, with a 100% success rate and 10X+ productivity (long-time readers have seen some stats and test reports).

Table of Contents:
· I have been testing exactly the same way, using raw Selenium WebDriver with RSpec, since 2011
· The benefits of sticking with WebDriver
∘ 1. Worry-free
∘ 2. Free (as in freedom and free beer)
∘ 3. Better, in almost every aspect
∘ 4. I applied it to Desktop Test Automation
∘ 5. My daughter is applying to Mobile Test Automation